Extra water points and PE kits in classrooms: Shropshire schools gear up for heatwave

With the first ever red heat warning over extreme temperature and danger to life issued for much of the country, schools are adapting accordingly to safeguard pupils and staff.

Some are only partially open today and tomorrow, when the warning is in place, with many advising parents to keep their children at home when practical to do so.

Church Stretton School is one of them, with a message on Shropshire Council's website saying: "We are reducing the opening of our schools on Monday and Tuesday (18 and 19 July).

"We will be open for parents who need us to accommodate their children – but advising all parents to keep pupils at home where practical and safe, to complete distance learning. Any parent or carer who needs us to accommodate their child will be able to send them to school as usual."

Castlefields in Bridgnorth, Clunbury School, Shrewsbury Cathedral Catholic Primary and St Laurence, Ludlow are also amongst those posting similar messages and advice for parents and pupils.

One secondary school, Shrewsbury Academy, is staying fully open until the end of term on July 26 but has adapted school uniform policy and put measures in place to make sure all areas of the school are air conditioned and that people have space to move freely around the building

The 800-pupil secondary school is part of the Oswestry based Marches Academy Trust and runs ten schools across the county, with all of them remaining open.

The headteacher at Shrewsbury Academy Julie Johnson said they were well prepared for the forecasted heat and had adapted all the conditions at the school accordingly.

She said: "We have done a lot of planning and had many meetings with the trust to prepare for this from the point of view of making sure the building is well-ventilated and air conditioned with plenty of water points available. "Although the roll here is 800, we are not full to capacity at the moment so we have opened up additional space for all pupils.

"Since the hot weather hit last week we have constantly adapted the dress code for both pupils and staff and kept parents informed at all time. This week the pupils are allowed to wear PE kit and the staff are smart casual.

"We are restricting PE times, nobody does physical exercise in the afternoon although there was a light session this morning when temperatures were a bit lower. There are plenty of opportunities to keep hydrated as well with at least ten water drop points throughout the school.

"The care of the pupils is first, foremost and paramount so that is why a lot of planning went into this situation and we took a lot of advice on it - it is normally a cold weather situation we have to deal with so this is quite new."

For full details on the status of all schools across Shropshire in the next few days, visit shropshire.gov.uk/schoolsandeducation.